Joseph Edgar Foreman (born July 28, 1974), better known by his stage name Afroman, is an American rapper, best known for the hit single "Because I Got High". He was nominated for a Grammy award in 2002.

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Early life[edit]

Foreman originally started rapping in the eighth grade, when he began recording homemade raps and selling them to his classmates.[1] "The first tape I made was about my eighth-grade teacher," he once recalled. "She got me kicked out of school for sagging my pants, which was a big deal back then. So I wrote this song about her and it sold about 400 copies: it was selling to teachers, students, just about everybody. And I realized that, even though I wasn't at school, my song was at school, so in a way I was still there. All these people would come by my house just to give me comments about how cool they thought the song was."[2] Foreman also performed in his church at a young age, playing both the drums and guitar.[1]

Music career[edit]

In 1998, Afroman released his first album, My Fro-losophy; and later relocated to Hattiesburg, Mississippi,[1] where he met drummer Jody Stallone, keyboardist/bassist Darrell Havard, and producer Tim Ramenofsky (aka "Headfridge").

After the single's success, Afroman joined the lineup of Cypress Hill's fall festival "Smoke Out" with the Deftones, Method Man, and others.[4] After this, Universal Records signed Afroman to a six-album deal, and Universal released The Good Times in 2001. The Good Times was a compilation of Afroman's first two albums and some new tracks.[1]

Afroman started releasing his music independently and mostly through the Internet in 2004,[1] and that year, he recorded Jobe Bells, which satirized traditional Christmas songs.[5]